


I would do anything for love

by ArcaneAddict



Category: Warcraft - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-17 19:35:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20626412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcaneAddict/pseuds/ArcaneAddict
Summary: Inspired by Meatloaf's immortal song and statement that he would do anything for love but he won't do "that". I'm deciding what "that" is with different Warcraft pairs, more to be added as we go! First up Genn and Mia Greymane, in honor of the Friday the 13th full moon!





	1. Love won't make me leave

It always came in October. Just before the full moon.

"I need to clear my head" Genn would say, over dinner or causally in passing, while Mia was taking out her earrings before they went to bed.

"I'm going to the Headlands for a few days, maybe a week or so. I'll be back before the storms start."

Late fall brought fierce storms to the Gilnean coast and he knew Mia disliked weathering them alone in Greymane Keep. She was too old to be strictly afraid of thunder or lightning, but it made her restless; she passed many nights up in the halls, keeping company with anxious servants who had family at sea. Genn would come and find her near dawn and take her back to bed, his arms curled around her as he grumbled about her cold feet. 

It was sweet, but also his way of smoothing over his annual disappearance around the same time every year to their lodge up in the Northern Headlands.

This time, it was late afternoon in her sitting room; he stood with his back turned, looking out the window that overlooked the courtyard. Mia kept the treadle steady on her spinning wheel as the soft grey wool twisted under her hands, turning from loose roving into strands of yarn. Genn often found excuses to spend time with her when she was spinning or knitting; he would watch her with dark eyes and some of the ever-present tension would slowly ebb out of his body. 

That tension radiated off him now, his back ramrod straight and shoulders high under his tailored coat.

"You should take Tess this year. She would enjoy it." Mia said mildly.

Her husband shook his head.

"I'm sure that she has younger friends that she would rather spend time with," he said, "She's...I can take her in the spring, if she would like. It's more hospitable then."

Mia's eyes narrowed. No jokes about Tess the whirlwind. Cutting himself off mid-sentence. 

"That is very true," she agreed with deceptively calmness, "It's nothing but pine trees and mud this time of year."

Genn nodded distractedly, as if not hearing what she said.

"I'll be back soon," he promised. He stepped away from the window and dropped a kiss on the top of her head, quick and apologetic. 

The queen's expression softened as she watched him leave, his limp noticeably worse in the cool weather, but her resolve remained. 

If it's nothing but pine trees and mud, she reasoned, there's no good reason for anyone to go up there now, including him.

Mia finished spinning the remaining roving before she slowed the treadle and replaced the now loaded bobbin with a fresh one. It would keep until she returned. From her little trip to their lodge in the Headlands.

Just before a full moon.

She did somewhat regret her decision on the journey up. Genn and the few guards that accompanied him left on horseback, eschewing the comforts of a carriage. Mia followed a few days later and as the carriage lurched over the increasing narrowed and ill-kept country roads in the Headlands, she regretted not doing the same. To be sure, a roof kept the rain out, but her sweet little roan filly wouldn't have rattled her about like dried peas in a tin.

I should have let myself stay fat after having Tess, she thought grumpily, her backside wouldn't be so bruised by the time they reached the remote and secluded hunting lodge. 

Civilization had vanished several miles back, at a crossroads marked by a rusted unlit lantern fixed to a weathered signpost pointing the way. The pines loomed overhead, the feathery arms of the trees interlaced, casting a green-shaded gloom over the road and the lodge itself. She accepted the offered hand from Thomas her driver, who helped her dismount with a modicum of grace from the carriage to the needle-covered ground. 

"Oooh, might want to watch your step there, marm," he said cautiously then turned bright red, "I mean, your grace."

He was young and earnest and blushed as bright as his many freckles. Mia liked him rather terribly; he'd only come into his position in the household recently and was unused to serving in a royal household. It was refreshing.

"We're miles away from court, dear," she said, releasing her grip on his hand only after she was quite certain she wasn't going to slip on the treacherous pine needles, "It's quite alright."

He nodded and the red began to fade.

"I'll have the horses cared for and come round to see if you need anything," he said with relief. 

Part of her personal retinue had ridden ahead to prepare her rooms-and, she suspected, to tip off her husband about her arrival. A new fire blazed in the hearth in the lord's chambers, the canopied bed nearly made up and undisturbed. Mia smoothed her hand over the embroidered coverlet and frowned. Genn hadn't been sleeping here, she was sure of it. Tidied or not, her husband tended to leave marks of his presence everywhere. An impatiently discarded collar, boots kicked into a heap in the corner, or---

She crossed the room to the wide window and picked up his cane, her frown deepening. On the broad sill, dirt traced along scratches in the wood, and a piece of string wrapped around a broken latch. She set the cane down and pulled the string loose, leaning out into the bracing autumn air. 

The jump had to be near twenty feet or more. The wind caught her hair, pulling out strands loose and wild around her face. Mia inhaled deeply and the hair on the back of her neck prickled with the sensation of being watched. Her gaze darted between the trees but caught nothing, just the creak and sway of ghost-pale branches in the deepening gloom.

Tonight was the full moon.

The queen pulled the window shut but left the latch. Time enough to wait.

A green scarf grew on her knitting needles as the afternoon gave away to dusk, early and cold so near the mountains. It had been futile to knit in the carriage without risking a dropped stitch. Still, Mia only got so far before she realized that she'd yanked the yarn so tight the poor scarf could have stood up on it's own.

She took dinner in the kitchen with a few others, glad enough for some company while she waited. A few of her husband's guard skulked through, most in worgen form, in a rush to escape once they saw her there.

And she waited.

The moon climbed into the sky over the lodge, a heavy ivory disc that shed a pale, unsettling light that pierced through the forest canopy. Distant howls, wolf or worgen, drifted from the slopes of the nearby mountains, followed slowly by a creeping low mist. 

Tess sat by the window and unraveled the scarf, rolling it back onto the ball to begin again. She had unpinned her hair, a loose, heavy braid coiling over her shoulder. Even indoors, she wore a heavy robe over her clothes to keep out the draft. The north winds turned sharp earlier in the year.

She tucked the loose yarn end into the ball and, biting her lip, hurled it at the opposite wall. It bounced and rolled under the bed, yarn coming loose and leaving behind a lonely little tail of green behind it. 

If Genn wasn't coming to her, she would go to him. Even in her nightgown. 

She slipped out through a side door less frequented by the servants. Her slippers offered little protection from the damp and cold and she regretted not putting on her boots. Still, she trudged on, heading towards where she did not know, besides to head deeper into the forest and north, towards where the howls had drifted. Mia's breath came out in short foggy puffs of warmth and needles and twigs crackled and snapped as she walked, announcing her movements to anyone nearby. 

Again, she felt her skin prickle unpleasantly and she stopped, her heart pounding more quickly than usual.

"Genn," she said, "I know that you're here. If I have to spend all night out here, I will. This has gone on long enough."

The forest drank in the sound of her words, absorbing her voice before it carried far. Mia wrapped her arms around her chest and tried to look stern rather than hugging herself from the cold. Silence followed just long enough that she thought perhaps she had been mistaken.

"Your grace," came a familiar, if somewhat deeper voice from behind her, "It's quite late to be out on a, er, walk. And very dark."

Mia suppressed an undignified shriek of surprise as she whipped around to see Thomas there. Somehow, he still looked like himself, even as a worgen. Deep russet brown fur lined his muzzle, head and back, his chest and neck a pale cream. His more formal clothes were replaced by the looser fitting garments required for anyone who wanted to remain somewhat decent once they reverted back to their human body. His friendly brown eyes were sharper, though, wide and dark and piercing in their intensity.

"Light, Thomas," she hissed, "You could have made more noise, I don't like being crept up on."

His head dropped sadly, though he still towered over her in his worgen form.

"Apologies marm," he said, "It's the full moon. I'm stuck this way until dawn at least. I didn't mean to cause you alarm. Shall I escort you back to the lodge?"

She shook her head stubbornly and opened her mouth to reply, but instead, was forestalled by a low growling voice from the darkness.

"The queen is with me. You may return to the lodge, immediately."

The young worgen's eyes widened immediately and his tail dropped low to the ground as he backed away, his eyes fixed on a point behind Mia.

"Yes, of course, your grace, immediately," he stammered, bowing first towards the shadows and then towards Mia, "L-let me know if I'm needed."

After he disappeared, almost tripping over his own paws, Mia turned towards the sound of her husband's voice. Sharp yellow eyes bored into hers from the darkness, near 8 feet off the ground, the outlines of his form still shrouded in the darkness underneath the pines. Where the moonlight pierced through the branches, it glinted off silver and ivory fur. 

"Are you going to keep hiding from me?" she asked, her tone made a little sharper by her fright and the coldness seeping through her coat, "I didn't come up that miserable road to play children's games, Genn."

The eyes blinked.

"Why did you come," he asked, the words rumbling deep and low in his chest, "You can see that I'm not fit for company."

Mia threw up her hands in the air in disbelief.

"Fit for company?" she sputtered in disbelief "Fit for...for Light's sake, you're my husband. Do you really come all this way every year so that I don't see you in this form? As if it's a secret? It's been years, Genn, years. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier if I had been turned as well."

He stepped forward then, the light illuminating two enormous hind paws tipped with long, blunted ivory claws and part of his long muzzled face before he stopped again, as if he thought better of it.

"Mia, please," he said. He sounded uncertain, the words like a low pleading whine "Do not say that. The fact that you were spared the curse is one of the few things that helps me to endure it. Even now. Even after learning to...control it."

His lips curled away from his fangs in a disdainful sneer at those last words, as if the idea that he was in control was to be pitied or mocked. The queen listened and her heart twisted under her breastbone reproachfully. She stepped towards him, just one short step. As if not to frighten him off, like a wild animal.

"I know it's the full moon," she said softly, "And...I am sorry. I only wish that you saw me as your equal, not a child to be protected. I love you. Seeing you like this won't change that."

Genn's eyes flashed in the dark and he tossed his head impatiently.

"If you loved me," he growled, "You would go back to the lodge. Forget this happened and go back to the Keep. I can't...You think that I'm civilized, like this? I couldn't change if I wanted to, not with the full moon."

He stepped backwards and his growl turned darker, uglier.

"I told you what happened. I told you what I did, when I was cursed and I saw in your eyes you could not believe it, not truly. But if you saw me now, like this? Mia, you would know it. You would feel it. I ripped people apart, innocent families to shreds, stalked down survivors who begged for mercy, terrified. Turned those who angered me, defied me. Is that what you want to know? That I'm a monster?"

She was losing him, she could feel him slipping out of her grasp like beads from a broken necklace scattering over a polished wood floor. 

"How dare you," she growled back, "How dare you try to make this about...about my love for you? I'm here because I love you! I have borne your children, stuck by you when your lords rebelled, waited and believed in you, rebuilt with you. I've grieved with you." 

Mia sucked back a ragged sob. "I love you more than light, but I am not going to leave you. So show yourself...or run away. Again."

Her tears ran hot against her wind-numbed skin and she hadn't even realized that she had begun to cry. Even now, she had talked around it, not naming the grief they had shared also, because even now, it festered in them both like a wound too fresh to touch. She wiped her eyes on the edge of her sleeve and then Genn was there, his arms winding around her like a vice, crushing her against his warm, furred chest. Mia buried her face against him, her arms winding around him as far as she could reach, her hands clutching at his vest.

"Mia," he said into her hair, "Mia, I am sorry. I am an ass. A fool. Please do not cry. You're half-frozen."

A tentative paw patted her back, the other arm still clutched around her shoulders in a hug. 

"You smell like you," she said thickly, "I mean, different but...I know it's still you. This is not so different for me."

It wasn't exactly true, but not exactly false either. Genn was not a particularly tall man as a human, while Mia was taller than most women. It made them a handsome couple.

Now, he towered over her, and he showed no sign of pain or lameness in the leg that gave him so much trouble as a human. The way he moved, the muscles under her hands, reminded her deeply that there was something wild and untamed in the man that she loved, that perhaps he never had left her, but only followed a call that he could not resist when he came here every year to the North. 

"I knew the moment you arrived," he said, "I smelled you on the breeze. You smell like sandalwood and wool."

Mia's sob dissolved into laughter. 

"Are you suggesting that I smell like a sheep?" she said, turning her head to press against her husband's chest, listening to the warm and steady thump of his heartbeat. 

Genn nuzzled her hair and neck and made a noise like hmmmm that reverberated through them both like a low note on a stringed instrument.

"My favorite sheep," he said, "My own clever, stubborn sheep. Mia."

Her name was a suggestion. A question. An endearment.

She pulled back and looked up into his face, so different and familiar all at once.

"You're right," she said, "I'm freezing. Genn, take me back to bed."

Overhead, the full moon climbed the sky, dissolving away slowly only in the misty morning light of the sun.


	2. Love won't bring you breakfast in bed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do a happy, very alive Sylvanas/Nathanos. I also wanted to write him as dominant with her, because they have absolutely fascinating dynamics that scream switch to me. I'm more than willing to write the happy endings to this (and other chapters), just comment and let me know!

Light, Nathanos was a heavy sleeper.

Literally. 

Sylvanas squirmed out from underneath his arm, a difficult task considering the deathgrip he had around her chest. She prodded him in the ribcage with an elbow and he made a noise like a discontented bear as he let go, his arm automatically curling up around his pillow. He slept on his stomach, at least indoors. Outdoors or at work, the human hardly seemed to ever really go to sleep at all, his eyes constantly flickering open at the smallest noise from where he leaned against his pack or a tree.

Here, at Marris Stead, he slept like a goddamn log and by the sunlight pouring through the windows, until about noon. Sylanas sat up and waited to see if he planned to wake himself. He didn't move. His bare broad shoulders rose and fell with his breathing, his dark hair a mess of untidy curls. He had an archer's build, muscular arms and a chest that tapered to a narrow waist, though he still had a bulkier frame than most elves did.

"Marris," she said, and nudged him again, "Wake up."

She leaned down and kissed the back of his neck, the scruff there brushing against her lips. He was warm and languid and deceptively still, right until he rolled onto his back and pulled her down on top of him, chest to chest. Sylvanas resisted her fighter's instinct to escape the grip, relaxing against him as he smiled with self-satisfaction.

"Hmm, you walked right into my trap," he said, "Now you'll just have to stay in bed with me."

Despite the threat, there was no force behind his grasp. His calloused hands stroked down her shoulders and back and Sylvanas shivered, the touch recalling the night before. His smile only deepened at her reaction. Nathanos rarely smiled around other people and if he did, it was polite, perfunctory and somewhat strained. Only when they were alone, in moments like these, did he show his softer side. 

“You win,” she said dryly, “All hail the mighty hunter. Now you’ve captured your prey, you should know that she is hungry and would like breakfast.”

Nathanos sighed, sinking into the mattress with his hands firmly fixed on her ass, keeping her locked top of him.

“This is supposed to be my leave,” he complained without much gusto behind it, “And you followed me all the way to my house just to order me to cook for you.”

She nodded and nipped at his neck.

“Right away, too,” she said, “Or I might be tempted to nibble on you instead.”

She didn’t need to see the conflict on his face, she could feel it in his hard cock trapped between them. He rubbed a hand over his face and sat up, sliding her off his lap and onto the bed beside him.

“Fine,” he said, “I will make your breakfast. Just…promise to behave while I’m working around a hot stove?”  


She stayed in bed while he got up and started to put on his pants.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said, “But if it makes you happier, I’ll stay right here, and you can bring me breakfast in bed.”

She smiled winningly and was rewarded by a stern face as Marris shook his head.

“Absolutely not,” he said firmly, “There will be no breakfast in bed in this house. You can sleep until it’s ready, come down naked if you want, but I’m serving the food in the kitchen.”

Sylvanas raised an eyebrow.

“Are you really telling me no,” she asked, a little steel in her voice, just to see if he’d give away, “When I’m naked and hungry and just waiting for you to feed me?”

The human didn’t budge, though he returned to the bed and kissed her, his hands framing her face. He softened his refusal by interrupting himself every few words with another kiss, this time on her cheek, her eyelids, her chin.

“Yes,” he said, “I have a very strict definition for my breakfast when I am here at Marris Stead. That definition includes toast, and toast in bed is a disaster. I refuse to have the sanctity of my bed ruined by crumbs. My lady.”

He nimbly dodged the pillow that she hurled at his impudent head as he left the bedroom. Sylvanas sighed and curled around the pillow he left behind, his scent still on the sheets and pillowcase. 

Truth be told, his stubbornness was half the attraction. In Quel’thalas, no one refused a Windrunner. No one would disobey an order from the Ranger-General. And certainly, no one other than Nathanos had fucked her senseless, the orgasms blending together until she shook like a leaf in his arms and then he was all warmth and praise for her.

_“So beautiful,” he whispered to her, her limp, shaking body clutched tight against him as he fucked her through the haze, “Such a good, pretty girl for me, coming so many times.”___

_ _Sylvanas snapped out of the memory and the growing urge to get off right then and there with her hand when Marris called from downstairs, announcing that breakfast was served._ _

_ _“And in the kitchen,” he added primly as she plodded into the room, a loose robe knotted around her waist. The promised repast did include a neat stack of golden-brown toast, carefully placed next to a butter dish. _ _

_ _She scowled and dropped into the chair across the table from him. _ _

_ _“You’re just a beam of sunshine this morning,” she grumbled and made a show of biting into a piece of toast with exaggerated care._ _

_ _Nathanos shrugged._ _

_ _“And you’re a boar when you’re hungry,” he said, “So eat.”_ _

_ _She didn’t have much room for argument there. Her own sisters had complained about that before, more than once. Besides, Marris was a good cook. They ate together in agreeable silence, and he started to gather the dishes and stacking them to wash. His back was to her, his hands filled with plates, and Sylvanas saw her opportunity._ _

_ _“You could get dressed and we could go out,” he said, oblivious to her scheme, “This will only take me a few minutes.”_ _

_ _Sylvanas suppressed the urge to giggle and ruin her own plot._ _

_ _“But my dear,” she said coyly, “I’m not finished eating yet.”_ _

_ _She posed in the kitchen door dramatically, a piece of toast in one upraised hand like a trophy. Nathanos’ eyes widened and he started to put the dishes down._ _

_ _“Don’t you dare-“_ _

_ _She was up the stairs in an instant, faster than him by far. It gave her a minute to prepare, so she hopped into the bed and sat with her legs demurely together and tucked underneath. Her robe lay discarded on the floor, and she was entirely naked except for a strategically placed piece of toast. _ _

_ _Nathanos charged into the room filled with righteous fury that quite suddenly fizzled when he saw her, his fury mostly feigned anyways. He huffed and put his hands on his hips._ _

_ _“I thought I got that out of your system last night,” he growled, “You’re normally much better behaved after I’ve taken you to bed.”_ _

_ _Sylvanas smiled innocently and patted the bed next to her._ _

_ _“You’re right,” she said, “I suppose that you just walked right into my trap.” _ _

_ _She tossed the offending toast onto the floor and laid back, her body arching up from the bed in a long, languid stretch. “I suppose that means you’ll have to come back to bed with me.”_ _

_ _Nathanos was on her, then, his hands clutching at her with almost bruising intensity. He grabbed her ankles and threw her legs over his shoulders, dragging her up and open towards him, his mouth pressing light, teasing kisses along her inner thighs. _ _

_ _“Your manners as a house guest are appalling,” he said, “I told you, no toast in bed.”_ _

_ _Sylvanas clutched at the sheets and her hips tried to buck forward towards him, his words gusting over her aching core like caress. His mouth was flushed darkly red and his eyes danced with malicious delight._ _

_ _“You’re right,” she said, “But you’re a wonderful host, Nathanos. Please, let me try again. I promise to be very, very good.”_ _

_ _His mouth twitched into a smile._ _

_ _“I suppose,” he said magnanimously, “But we’ll need to start all over. From the beginning.”_ _


	3. Love won't make me sign a contract

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would likely classify Tehd and Marius as a romantic, rather than sexual couple, as Tehd is ace.

"Let me run down the checklist, just to make sure that I have everything correct." 

The warlock narrowed his eyes and stared until the demon hunter made a grunt that could be reasonably described as agreement. 

"Wonderful. First, you decline to test, enter or participate in the formation of any portals or temporal-displacement mechanisms which I devise through my use of magic. Second, you highly object to such portals or mechanisms being created in or in close proximity to our sleeping and/or living quarters at any times, unless, and I quote, "a very large rock is going to smash us without any other way to avoid it"?"

Marius shook his head.

"I said if a very large rock was going to smash you, specifically," he growled, "This contract better reflect that."

Tehd sighed heavily and made a note on the parchment. Writing while laying on his back had its disadvantages, as the ink drips on his robe testified. He bristled as an arm snaked around his shoulders and arms and heaved him up to a sitting position against Marius, instead of laying with his head in his lap. A slow drizzling rain pattered on the tent canvas overhead, the last remnants of a storm off the Azuras coast. The undead leaned comfortably against the sturdy demon hunter, though his dessicated face was screwed up in a scowl.

"Damn it, Marius, you could ask first."

The night elf showed his fangs. In some circumstances, the gesture might be a smile.

"But you're amusing when you're angry," he said, "And you were getting more ink on you than on the paper, so. Quit complaining, start writing." 

Tehd jabbed him in the ribs with a bony elbow.

"Oh, be quiet. Third item. Summoning. Creatures that I summon, sentient or otherwise, shall not be killed or consumed by you unless by my express agreement, or unless I am somehow rendered unconscious and the creature escapes my bonds at the same time. You agree to be summoned in such cases that I am in immediate need of your assistance , to be revisited if one or more summonings of you occur that you feel did not fall under the parameters described here. " 

"Mhmm."

"Excellent. Fourth, terms of the contract will be immediately suspended if, in the infinite universe, you somehow find a way to singlehandedly defeat Sargareas and his death requires the violation of said contractual agreement. Which is not going to happen."

Marius turned and rested his chin on the other man's head.

"That applies to you too," he said calmly, "If you find a way to kill him. You're always researching."

The warlock blushed faintly.

"Oh, er, of course," he said, "I'll make the amendment."

His quill scratched across the page. They continued like this for an hour or so. It had taken weeks to hash out the details, now it was just quibbling over the fine print. Tehd excelled at fine print, but this might be his masterpiece. Light help the next demon who tried to out-negotiate him; after Marius, he had even more ideas on how to weigh a deal in his favor. 

As he wrote, the night elf carefully navigated until he managed to get Tehd pulled onto his lap, peering over his shoulder at the parchment as if he was bothering to read it. He could; the script was both infernal and written in ink derived from demon's blood. Still, he insisted that the warlock continue reading the terms of the contract to him. 

"Ugh," he said close to the undead's ear, "Is that the last of it? No more amendments, sub-clauses or frippery?"

"No more frippery," Tehd said with no small hint of pride, "The contractual outline of our relationship, to the last detail, and ensuring that I am not trying to trick, abuse or otherwise enslave you as a minion, despite the fact that I am a warlock and you are, at least partially, demonic in nature. We both need to sign the document and once done, we are sealed to its terms. I'll sign first."

He stabbed the sharpened nib into his hand a few times before a few drops of dark blood oozed out. The demon hunter tensed, probably a natural response; even undead blood was blood. Tehd dipped the quill and signed, then held it up for Marius, who did not take it immediately.

"So," Marius said, deep and unusually quiet, "You see this contract primarily as a way to protect me from you? Not as a way to keep me from destroying your little projects or portals or summoned minions?"

The undead twisted around to look up at him, the angle a little awkward. Marius peered down at him, and uncertainty played over the demon hunter's face like a cloud across the sun, as mercurial and swift.

"Well, obviously," Tehd said, with some annoyance, "You've never trusted me Marius, that was clear from the day we met and you tried to kill me. You tried to kill me more than once after that! I'm perfectly capable of defending myself. You, on the other hand, have expressed multiple doubts about the veracity of my intentions towards you, and told me that you have no desire to be added to my pet menagerie!"

He'd raised his voice and he paused, pinched his nose between two thin fingers and exhaled slowly.

"I know that your fears have some founding, Marius," he said, "That is why I drew up the contract. I hope that it may lay to rest some of your concerns, so we may continue to work together, as we have been, towards the Legion's defeat."

"That's it?"

"That is it. Now, if you please?"

He brandished the quill and then uttered a string of unholy profanities as the pen burst into tiny green flames. Marius reached out a long arm and picked up the contract before he set fire to it with a glance of his bright green eyes. The demonhunter kept the scroll in hand, even as the flames consumed the paper and engulfed his hand. The green fire flickered around the night elf's pale purple hand like a candle flame about the wick.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing?" Tehd yelped, "That took hours of writing! Weeks of constant arguing, months of--! Oh you idiot! I can't reproduce that entirely from memory, not without some kind of errors, which means we're starting over from zero."__

_ _He scrambled out of Marius's arms and jumped to his feet, entirely ready to set the entire tent on fire, if only to prove that he was also capable of wanton destruction when he felt like it. The night elf dropped a few withered fragments of paper and remained where he sat, his gaze finding Tehd and settling there calmly._ _

_ _"It's not zero," Marius said, "We're starting from the fact that I trust you. And I don't need a contract to know that you're a good man, or that you also care for me. Otherwise, why would you have drawn up that tedious document, or fussed over it so much, or stabbed your own poor hand to sign in blood?"_ _

_ _He reached out and took Tehd's hand in one of his._ _

_ _"I probably should have stopped you before that part," he said a little regretfully and the undead might, just might have managed to sustain his rapidly cooling fury if Marius didn't promptly follow it up by kissing his hand repeatedly, "I'll fix that."_ _

_ _The rest of Tehd's anger rushed out of him like a punctured balloon and he used his free hand to pull the night elf's head against his chest._ _

_ _"I don't think your saliva has healing properties," he said, unwilling to relent quite so quickly, "But I suppose that we can work together without the fuss of a contract. I mean, truly, we have already for months, haven't we? And if you trust me then..."_ _

_ _Marius pulled back and smiled at him with pointed teeth._ _

_ _"I do," he said, "So then what, Tehd?"_ _

_ _The warlock pursed his lips._ _

_ _"I suppose," he said cautiously, "That we're going to kill quite a few demons, then. Together."_ _

_ _The demonhunter's smile broadened._ _

_ _"I would like that. No contract."_ _

_ _"No contract." Tehd repeated and a tiny pinprick of warmth welled up in his chest. _ _

_ _"I could also stab my hand with something sharp though, if that seemed more fair?" Marius offered._ _

_ _"You idiot," Tehd said, "No. I'd much rather spill other people's blood. Shall we?"_ _

_ _It felt good to know before he even asked that the answer would be simply: yes._ _


End file.
